<br>thanks, quite an extraordinary tour de force in terms of genealogy!!<br><br>Michel<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 1:45 AM, Sandwichman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lumpoflabor@gmail.com">lumpoflabor@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">It is indeed easy to call an author a liar. It's another thing altogether to document it:<br><br>
<br>Chapter Four of Buchanan's <i>The Death of the West</i>, "Four Who Made a
Revolution," shares with the Oslo mass murder, Anders Breivik's
presumed "manifesto" the feature of being plagiarized from an unreliable
source (the <i>same</i> source) who distorted his sources... and so on.<br>
<br>
Listed second among the five friends who "were kind enough to read the text and to urge cuts, alterations and additions" was <a href="http://ecologicalheadstand.blogspot.com/2011/07/confessions-of-cultural-marxist.html" target="_blank">Bill Lind</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span>.
Five of 49 footnotes are to authors subsequently included in the Free
Congress Foundation pamphlet, "Political Correctness: A Short History of
An Ideology," also plagiarized by Breivik -- William Lind (2), Raymond
V. Raehn (2) and Gerald L. Atkinson. However, there are two additional
footnotes to "Michael L�wy" that are clearly <i>not</i> from L�wy but
again from Raehn. The true source is evident when one traces the
footnote and compares Buchanan's text with L�wy's and Raehn's. The
infidelities in Raehn's quotations are carried through, unmolested, into
Buchanan's text.<br>
<br>
<a name="1347c00ae2f8c258_more"></a><br>
Buchanan: <br>
<blockquote>'Who will free us from the yoke of Western Civilization?' -- Georg Luk�cs, Marxist Theoretician.</blockquote><br>
Raehn: <br>
<blockquote>'The question is, Who will free us from the yoke of Western Civilization?'</blockquote><br>
L�wy: <br>
<blockquote>Luk�cs's attitude to the powers at war was at once that of a
(Hungarian) anti-absolutist democrat and a (German) romantic
anti-capitalist. The 1962 preface to <i>The Theory of the Novel</i>
offers a retrospective account of his position. 'When I tried at this
time to put my emotional attitude into conscious terms, I arrived at
more or less the following formulations: the Central Powers would
probably defeat Russia; this might lead to the downfall of Tsarism, I
had no objection to that. There was also some probability that the West
would defeat Germany; if this led to the downfall of the Hohenzollerns
and the Habsburgs, I was once again in favour. <b>But then the question arose: who was to save us from western civilization?'</b></blockquote><br>
In L�wy's account Luk�cs is reflecting, critically, on his inchoate, <b>pre-Marxist</b> attitude, not stating some premise of his formulation of Marxist doctrine.<br>
<br>
Buchanan:<br>
<blockquote>The first dissenting disciple was the Hungarian Georg Luk�cs, an agent of the Comintern, whose <i>History and Class Consciousness</i>
had brought him recognition as a Marxist theorist to rival Marx
himself. 'I saw the revolutionary destruction of society as the one and
only solution,' said Luk�cs. 'A worldwide overturning of values cannot
take place without the annihilation of the old values and the creation
of new ones by the revolutionaries.'</blockquote><br>
Raehn: <br>
<blockquote>Georg Luk�cs was the son of a wealthy Hungarian banker who
began his political life as a key Soviet agent of the Communist
International. His book <i>History and Class Consciousness</i> gained
him recognition as the leading Marxist theorist since Karl Marx. And
like Karl Marx his primary emotion was hatred. 'I saw the revolutionary
destruction of society as the one and only solution to the cultural
contradictions of the epoch,' was one of his expressed attitudes. In
defending Bolshevism, Luk�cs stated: 'Such a worldwide overturning of
values cannot take place without the annihilation of the old values and
the creation of new ones by the revolutionaries.'</blockquote><br>
L�wy (p. 93): <br>
<blockquote>What attracted the young Luk�cs to [poet Endre] Ady's lyricism was the fact that, unlike the <i>Nyugat</i> and <i>Huszadik Szazad</i>
'modernists', he rejected not only the old feudal Hungary, but also
western bourgeois 'progress': "At bottom, this entire phase of my
development was inspired... by discontent and revolt against the
Hungarian capitalism that had sprung to life in the 'gentry'. These same
feelings lay behind my unconditional admiration for Ady; yet not for a
moment did they give me the idea -- generally accepted by the Hungarian
intellectual left -- that a way out had first to be prepared by the
introduction of western capitalist civilization into Hungary. . . . <b>'Even
though my ideas were confused from a theoretical point of view, I saw
the revolutionary destruction of society as the one and only solution to
the cultural contradictions of the epoch.'</b></blockquote><br>
As should be clear from the context, the first part of the
Raehn/Buchanan citation refers to Luk�cs's romantic anti-capitalist
affinity toward a Hungarian poet. An older Luk�cs was reflecting on
ideas he held as a youth in 1909. The second part of the citation comes
from a different, transitional, period in Luk�cs's intellectual
development -- in November 1918 <i>before</i> Luk�cs embraced Bolshevism. In fact, the article from which the quotation is taken contained his last argument <i>against</i> Bolshevism (not <i>defending</i>
Bolshevism as Raehn claimed) before his unexpected conversion.
Regardless, in terms of fidelity to sources, it is worth pointing out
that the last nine words in the sentence attributed by both Buchanan and
Raehn to Luk�cs were not Luk�cs's but L�wy's <i>interpretation</i> of the sense of what Luk�cs was saying.<br>
<br>
L�wy (130):<br>
<blockquote>Luk�cs had no hesitation in rejecting the argument of
numerous conservative intellectuals that Bolshevism spelt the
destruction of civilization and culture: <b>'Such a worldwide overturning of values cannot take place without the annihilation of the old values'</b> and the creation of new ones by the revolutionaries.</blockquote>
What I have documented so far is garden-variety intellectual dishonesty. The next footnote, however, is a <i>tour de force</i> of calumny. Not only has Buchanan misrepresented his source but his actual source, Reahn, has misrepresented <i>his</i> source. Moreover, the chain of obfuscation and fantasy continues back through two more mendacious links.<br>
<br>
Buchanan:<br>
<blockquote>As deputy commissar for culture in Bela Kun's regime, Luk�cs
put his self-described "demonic" ideas into action in what came to be
known as 'cultural terrorism.'<br>
<br>
As part of this terrorism he instituted a radical sex education program
in Hungarian schools. Children were instructed in free love, sexual
intercourse, the archaic nature of middle-class family codes, the
outdatedness of monogamy, and the irrelevance of religion, which
deprives man of all pleasures. Women, too, were called to rebel against
the sexual mores of the time.</blockquote><br>
Raehn:<br>
<blockquote>In 1919, Luk�cs became the Deputy Commissar for Culture in
the Bolshevik Bela Kun regime in Hungary, where he instigated what
became known as Culture Terrorism. He launched an explosive sex
education program. Special lectures were organized in Hungarian schools
and literature printed and distributed to instruct children about free
love, about the nature of sexual intercourse, about the archaic nature
of the bourgeois family codes, about the outdatedness of monogamy, and
the irrelevance of religion, which the Marxists said deprives man of all
pleasures.<br>
<br>
Children urged thus to reject and deride paternal authority and the
authority of the Church, and to ignore precepts of morality, easily and
spontaneously turned into delinquents with whom only the police could
cope. This call to rebellion addressed to Hungarian children was matched
by a call to rebellion addressed to Hungarian women. This was a
precursor to what Cultural Marxism would later bring into American
schools.</blockquote><br>
Buchanan again gives L�wy as his source for the description of Luk�cs's
reign as deputy commissar for culture. Unfortunately for Buchanan's
credibility, L�wy was himself citing a source, Victor Zitta, that he
explicitly identified as "unserious", giving as an example a supposed
incident where Luk�cs was alleged to have dragged the poet, Endre Ady
"from his deathbed" to a ceremony that couldn't have taken place until
months after the poet's death!<br>
<br>
L�wy:<br>
<blockquote>The bourgeois fury and indignation at Luk�cs�s profoundly
subversive cultural policy has recently found an echo in the writings of
one Victor Zitta. Portraying Luk�cs as a �fanatic . . . bent on
destroying the established social order�, Zitta argues that education
became �something perverse� under Luk�cs�s guidance: <br>
<blockquote><i>Special lectures were organized in schools and literature
printed and distributed to �instruct� children about free love, about
the nature of sexual intercourse, about the archaic nature of the
bourgeois family codes, about the outdatedness of monogamy, and the
irrelevance of religion, which deprives man of all pleasure. Children
urged thus to reject and deride paternal authority and the authority of
the Church, and to ignore precepts of morality, easily and spontaneously
turned into delinquents with whom only the police could cope. . . .
This call to rebellion addressed to children was matched by a call to
rebellion addressed to Hungarian women. Among the numerous curious
pamphlets published under Luk�cs�s auspices in the Commissariat of
Education and Culture, one is singularly interesting, if not typical of
Luk�cs�s cultural endeavours. Written by Zs�fia D�nes, it deals with
�Women in the Communist Social System" � Zs�fia claimed that in
bourgeois society the mistreatment of women was shocking. . . . In her
deliciously queer and hilarious pamphlet, Zs�fia calls upon women the
world over to unite and overthrow the chains imposed upon them by
exploitive bourgeois-spirited males.</i></blockquote></blockquote><br>
L�wy's characterization of unseriousness would seem to be corroborated
by contemporary reviews of Zitta's book, which were scathing. Of course
there is always the unlikely possibility that it was the critics who
were biased, not Zitta but here is a sample of their observations:<br>
<br>
Zoltan Tar, <i>Slavic Review</i>:<br>
<blockquote>The book relies heavily on a confusing conglomeration of
philosophical terms: alienation, objectification, reification,
self-estrangement, and distortion or neglect of elementary
sociohistorical facts. This confusion is partly due to the author's
heavy reliance on secondary source material, some of which was written
by official historians of the semi-Fascist interwar Horthy regime of
Hungary. Based on these dubious sources Zitta accuses Luk�cs of a murder
which he allegedly ordered during the 1919 Kun regime.</blockquote><br>
Irving Louis Horowitz, <i>The Sociological Quarterly</i><br>
<br>
<blockquote>VICTOR ZITTA has written an unusual book, made so more by
the biographical elements included in the analysis than by the analysis
itself. The work is the product of an emigre's desire to settle accounts
with an intellectual tradition that he was part of. It expresses a
sense of guilt at the world he left behind no less than the one he has
come to. He has gone about this study of Georg Lukics as one writes
about a deviant father; from the point of view of a son who wants to go
straight. At this level, the book represents an apologia pro vita sua in
the special form of criticism as vengeance.<br>
<br>
At the intellectual level, we are promised too much and provided with
too little. At one and the same time this is a book on a book, an
analysis of Luk�cs's <i>History and Class Consciousness</i>, but displaying even at this level all the chief elements of a <i>chronique scandaleuse</i>,
including cheap expos6s. In the process of self-redemption and sin
remission, Mr. Zitta is guilty of some sins of commission. Luk�cs is
credited with all kinds of evil deeds. It is stated as a fact drawn from
an anonymous author that during the Hungarian commune days Luk�cs gave
orders to kill a medical student on the charge of being
counterrevolutionary. This, after a discussion of how remarkably free of
terror the early days of the Bela Kun regime were. Along the same lines
are unproved charges against Luk�cs that an international art exhibit
which he helped organize had missing items in it; and that these were
stolen by Luk�cs and sold to Western businessmen, presumably for
personal and family plunder.<br>
...<br>
<br>
The recourse to private correspondence serves to legitimize a
questionable sort of notation system. Mr. Zitta is careful to insert a
footnote when he is accusing Luk�cs of sins, but invariably, the
footnotes prove no such sins. The notes generally have reference to an
isolated phrase in the paragraph and are irrelevant with respect to
biographical charges against Luk�cs. </blockquote><br>
John O'Neill, <i>Philosophy and Phenomenological Research</i>:<br>
<br>
<blockquote>At first slight, the massive, multilingual, and
bibliographical scholarship that has gone into Zitta's text would seem
to assure it of a place as the principal English introduction to Luk�cs.
But this is not what Zitta has achieved. To have done so would have
required a relation to his subject which his pseudo-psychoanalytic
method vitiates. Zitta is neither the patient student of Luk�cs nor the
profound analyst.</blockquote><br>
Laurent Stern, <i>The Journal of Politics</i>:<br>
<blockquote><br>
The high points of Luk�cs's intellectual activity during this period are <i>The Soul and the Forms</i> (1911), <i>Theory of the Novel</i> (1914-15) and <i>History and Class Consciousness</i>
(1923). Since these books bear clearly the imprint of Luk�cs's
development, a biography can be written based on them, if the biographer
(1) has some competence in the intellectual pursuits of his subject and
(2) possesses understanding and critical judgment to distinguish
between reflections concerning Literature or Philosophy and
autobiographical remarks. The reviewer regrets to admit that he finds
the author wanting on both counts.<br>
<br>
Zitta resorts to two surrogates for a serious discussion: (1) he relies
on documents of questionable value, especially concerning the Hungarian
Soviet experience in 1919, which prompts him to speculate whether Luk�cs
was implicated in murder; (2) he relies on gossip. Zitta claims having
"obtained orally" from this reviewer the information that Karl Mannheim
and two scientists of world renown have associated with Luk�cs. (p. 132)
Zitta places this association arbitrarily after Luk�cs became a
communist.</blockquote><br>
Annette T. Rubinstein, <i>Science & Society</i>:<br>
<br>
<blockquote>This book by an Assistant Professor of Political Science at
Marquette University is a curious conglomeration of serious study in
terms of valuable bibliographical research, a close if tendentious
reading of early Luk�cs material (1905-1923), much of which has long
been disowned by its author, a highly colored religious and, I think,
incorrect philosophical polemic conducted with at least verbal
propriety, and a wildly irresponsible series of often simplistic
historical and slanderous biographical or critical-biographical
statements. Here the most absurdly tenuous conclusions are presented as
literal statements of fact and generally discredited or interested
individuals are quoted as authoritative scholarly sources. <br>
<br>
Often this sort of interpretation is inextricably intertwined with
equally blatant misstatements of historical fact, blandly offered
without a shred of evidence. For example, Zitta tells us that, as Deputy
Commissar of Education for the short-lived Hungarian Commune. Luk�cs,
with the help of his comrades, undertook what might be called a cultural
brain-washing campaign. To a self-estranged man this came quite
naturally. The campaign called upon the techniques congenial to his and
his comrades' souls: he was to devise measures which would reproduce on a
mass-scale what he and his comrades had undergone on an individual
scale, namely self-estrangement. First of all, anxiety had to be induced
in the Hungarian political patient by various arrangements which would
deprive him of the ability to predict his daily routine and behavior. . .
. Second, guilt-feelings were to be inflicted by devising rules and
decrees designed not so much for the sake of their observance, but to
enable random punishment. . . . Third, doubts had to be created about
all values which were in touch with the previous order. . . .
Totalitarianism is thus prescribed on recipe by self-estranged persons
who exterminate the environment where self-identity is possible. </blockquote><br>
Gy�rgy M�rkus, <i>Science & Society</i>:<br>
<br>
<blockquote>...the fantastic misorientation of Prof. Zitta on questions
of Hungarian cultural history... begins on the very first page, where it
is stated that Luk�cs was the editor of "the famous literary monthly" <i>Nyugat</i> and of the <i>Huszadik Sz�zad</i>.
Both statements are incorrect. On page 23 Luk�cs has already become the
founder of the first journal, but perhaps that is not a miracle,
because on page 30 we learn that he was active in <i>Nyugat</i> circles around 1903, which is all the more astonishing because <i>Nyuga</i>t-
the most important journal in pre- war Hungary- was not founded until
1908. But perhaps the best ex- ample of the total irresponsibility of
the author is the story about Luk�cs and Endre Ady on pages 101-102. It
is stated that "Luk�cs contrived somehow to drag E. Ady to a ceremony
before the House of Parliament on March 1, and proclaimed the dismayed
and helplessly protesting poet . . . the 'Saint' of the Commune." Now
the facts of the matter are that: First, E. Ady died on January 27,
1919. Second, on March 1 the Communist Party was underground and any
meeting before the Parliament was quite out of the question. Third, the
Hungarian Commune was established on March 27.<br>
<br>
And while some persons, if we are to believe Zitta, were active after
their deaths, others were poets and members of "the revolutionary
generation" in their early childhood (see page 43). Mikl�s Radn�ti (in
the book incorrectly spelled Radn�thy) figures as one of the members of
the revolutionary generation of the 1910's. (Radn�ti, one of the most
outstanding poets of the years before and during the Second World War,
was born in 1909).</blockquote><br>
Here is Patrick J. Buchanan again, commenting on the massacre in Oslo:<br>
<br>
<blockquote>Predictably, the European press is linking Breivik to
parties of the populist right that have arisen to oppose
multiculturalism and immigration from the Islamic world. Breivik had
belonged to the Progress Party, but quit because he found it
insufficiently militant.<br>
<br>
His writings are now being mined for references to U.S. conservative
critics of multiculturalism and open borders. Purpose: demonize the
American right, just as the berserker�s attack on Rep. Gabrielle
Giffords in Tucson was used to smear Sarah Palin and Timothy McVeigh�s
Oklahoma City bombing was used to savage Rush Limbaugh and conservative
critics of Big Government.</blockquote><br>
No. Patrick J. Buchanan is <i>not</i> responsible for the acts committed
by Anders Breivik. Nor is William S. Lind responsible for those acts.
To paraphrase Mary McCarthy, "Every word they say is a lie, including
'and' and 'the.'" Anyone demented enough to act on the basis of what <i>they</i>
say is undoubtedly just looking for a pretext and will clutch at any
straw. What Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Lind, Mr. Reahn and their ilk ARE
responsible for, though, is <i><b>calumny</b></i>, which, according to the Catholic Dictionary, is a mortal sin.<br>
<br>
Calumny {from <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03190c.htm" target="_blank">The Catholic Encyclopedia</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span>)<blockquote>
<br>
(Latin calvor, to use artifice, to deceive)<br>
<br>
Etymologically any form of ruse or fraud employed to deceive another,
particularly in judicial proceedings. In its more commonly accepted
signification it means the unjust damaging of the good name of another
by imputing to him a crime or fault of which he is not guilty. The sin
thus committed is in a general sense mortal, just as is detraction. It
is hardly necessary, however, to observe that as in other breaches of
the law the sin may be venial, either because of the trivial character
of the subject-matter involved or because of insufficient deliberation
in the making of the accusation. <b>Objectively, a calumny is a mortal sin when it is calculated to do serious harm to the person so traduced.</b>
Just as in the instance of wrongful damage to person or estate, so the
calumniator is bound to adequate reparation for the injury perpetrated
by the blackening of another's good name. He is obliged (1) to retract
his false statements, and that even though his own reputation may
necessarily as a consequence suffer. (2) He must also make good whatever
other losses have been sustained by the innocent party as a result of
his libelous utterances, provided these same have been in some measure (<i>in confuso</i>) foreseen by him. In canon law the phrase <i>juramentum calumniae</i>
is employed to indicate the oath taken by the parties to a litigation,
by which they averred that the action was brought and the defence
offered in good faith. </blockquote><br><br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 10:04 AM, Natalie Golovin <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:10natalie@cox.net" target="_blank">10natalie@cox.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div style="font-family:'Calibri';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12pt">
<div>I�m wary of everyone & their facts. Easy to write off things you
disagree with by calling the author a� liar. But few are totally correct or
in error. Buchanan�s Chapts 8 & 11 were well worth throwing into play, and
he�s solidly against preemptive war which should get a few points 2 make up for
his derision of multiculturalism.</div>
<div style="font-style:normal;display:inline;font-family:'Calibri';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:small;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none">
<div style="font:10pt tahoma">
<div><font face="Calibri" size="3"></font>�</div>
<div style="background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(245,245,245)">
<div><b>From:</b> <a title="lumpoflabor@gmail.com" href="mailto:lumpoflabor@gmail.com" target="_blank">Sandwichman</a> </div>
<div><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, December 25, 2011 9:04 AM</div><div><div>
<div><b>To:</b> <a title="p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org" href="mailto:p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org" target="_blank">P2P Foundation mailing
list</a> </div>
<div><b>Subject:</b> Re: [P2P-F] Fukuyama on the absent left</div></div></div></div></div>
<div>�</div></div><div><div>
<div style="font-style:normal;display:inline;font-family:'Calibri';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:small;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none">Even
if you agreed with Buchanan's politics (God forbid), you should be wary of his
"facts." He lies in a very discrete way, citing as "sources" sources that his
real sources have egregiously and maliciously misquoted. In plain terms that is
plagiarism. Lying plagiarism.<br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 6:46 AM, Natalie Golovin <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:10natalie@cox.net" target="_blank">10natalie@cox.net</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div style="font-family:'Calibri';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:12pt">
<div>Suggest �The Origins of Political Order� by Fukuyama & �Currency
Wars� for p2p�s New Years Reading List. Buchanan�s �Suicide of a Superpower�
is full of facts-but not ones that would please the majority of readers.</div>
<div style="font-style:normal;display:inline;font-family:'Calibri';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:small;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none">
<div style="font:10pt tahoma">
<div>�</div>
<div style="background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(245,245,245)">
<div><b>From:</b> <a title="michel@p2pfoundation.net" href="mailto:michel@p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">Michel Bauwens</a> </div>
<div><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, December 25, 2011 6:02 AM</div>
<div><b>To:</b> <a title="p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org" href="mailto:p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org" target="_blank">P2P Foundation
mailing list</a> </div>
<div><b>Subject:</b> Re: [P2P-F] Fukuyama on the absent left</div></div></div>
<div>�</div></div>
<div style="font-style:normal;display:inline;font-family:'Calibri';color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:small;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none">
<div>
<div>a nice displacement <g><br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 8:24 PM, Apostolis
Xekoukoulotakis <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:xekoukou@gmail.com" target="_blank">xekoukou@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote">The end of history guy talks about the future of history.
<div>
<div></div>
<div><br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">2011/12/25 Michel Bauwens <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:michel@p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">michel@p2pfoundation.net</a>></span><br>
<blockquote style="border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote">thanks, a very nice summary of the neoliberal agenda!
<div>
<div><br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 6:44 AM, Peter Mazsa <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peter.mazsa@theunitedpersons.org" target="_blank">peter.mazsa@theunitedpersons.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote">FYI:<br><br>"[...] It has been several decades since
anyone on the left has been<br>able to articulate, first, a coherent
analysis of what happens to the<br>structure of advanced societies as
they undergo economic change and,<br>second, a realistic agenda that has
any hope of protecting a<br>middle-class society.<br><br>The main trends
in left-wing thought in the last two generations have<br>been, frankly,
disastrous as either conceptual frameworks or tools for<br>mobilization.
Marxism died many years ago, and the few old believers<br>still around
are ready for nursing homes. The academic left replaced<br>it with
postmodernism, multiculturalism, feminism, critical theory,<br>and a
host of other fragmented intellectual trends that are more<br>cultural
than economic in focus. Postmodernism begins with a denial of<br>the
possibility of any master narrative of history or
society,<br>undercutting its own authority as a voice for the majority
of citizens<br>who feel betrayed by their elites. Multiculturalism
validates the<br>victimhood of virtually every out-group. It is
impossible to generate<br>a mass progressive movement on the basis of
such a motley coalition:<br>most of the working- and lower-middle-class
citizens victimized by the<br>system are culturally conservative and
would be embarrassed to be seen<br>in the presence of allies like
this.<br><br>Whatever the theoretical justifications underlying the
left�s agenda,<br>its biggest problem is a lack of credibility. Over the
past two<br>generations, the mainstream left has followed a social
democratic<br>program that centers on the state provision of a variety
of services,<br>such as pensions, health care, and education. That model
is now<br>exhausted: welfare states have become big, bureaucratic,
and<br>inflexible; they are often captured by the very organizations
that<br>administer them, through public-sector unions; and, most
important,<br>they are fiscally unsustainable given the aging of
populations<br>virtually everywhere in the developed world. Thus, when
existing<br>social democratic parties come to power, they no longer
aspire to be<br>more than custodians of a welfare state that was created
decades ago;<br>none has a new, exciting agenda around which to rally
the masses.<br><br>AN IDEOLOGY OF THE FUTURE<br><br>Imagine, for a
moment, an obscure scribbler today in a garret<br>somewhere trying to
outline an ideology of the future that could<br>provide a realistic path
toward a world with healthy middle-class<br>societies and robust
democracies. What would that ideology look like?<br><br>[...] the agenda
it put forward to protect middle-class life could not<br>simply rely on
the existing mechanisms of the welfare state. The<br>ideology would need
to somehow redesign the public sector, freeing it<br>from its dependence
on existing stakeholders and using new,<br>technology-empowered
approaches to delivering services. It would have<br>to argue
forthrightly for more redistribution and present a realistic<br>route to
ending interest groups� domination of politics. [...]"<br><br><a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136782/francis-fukuyama/the-future-of-history" target="_blank">http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136782/francis-fukuyama/the-future-of-history</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span><br>
<br>P.<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>P2P
Foundation - Mailing list<br><a href="http://www.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://www.p2pfoundation.net</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span><br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br></div></div><span><font color="#888888">-- <br>P2P Foundation:
<a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span>� - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span> <br>
<br>Connect: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.ning.com" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.ning.com</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span>; Discuss: <a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank">http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span>
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</div><br></font></span><br>_______________________________________________<br>P2P
Foundation - Mailing list<br><a href="http://www.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://www.p2pfoundation.net</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span><br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all">
<div>�</div>-- <br></div></div><span style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><pre style="white-space:pre-wrap"><br></pre><pre style="white-space:pre-wrap">Sincerely yours, </pre><pre style="white-space:pre-wrap">
Apostolis Xekoukoulotakis</pre></span><font color="#888888"><br></font><br>_______________________________________________<br>P2P
Foundation - Mailing list<br><a href="http://www.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://www.p2pfoundation.net</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span><br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span>� - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span> <br>
<br>Connect: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.ning.com" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.ning.com</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span>; Discuss: <a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank">http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span>
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</div>
<div>�</div></div></div>
<hr>
<div>_______________________________________________<br>P2P
Foundation - Mailing list<br><a href="http://www.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://www.p2pfoundation.net</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span><br>
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</div></div></div></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>P2P
Foundation - Mailing list<br><a href="http://www.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://www.p2pfoundation.net</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span><br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Sandwichman<br>
<p>
</p><hr>
_______________________________________________<br>P2P Foundation - Mailing
list<br><a href="http://www.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://www.p2pfoundation.net</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span><br>
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<p></p></div></div></div></div></div></div>
<br>_______________________________________________<br>
P2P Foundation - Mailing list<br>
<a href="http://www.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://www.p2pfoundation.net</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span><br>
<a href="https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank">https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation</a><span style="padding-right:16px;width:16px;min-height:16px"></span><br>
<br></blockquote></div><font color="#888888"><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Sandwichman<br>
</font><br>_______________________________________________<br>
P2P Foundation - Mailing list<br>
<a href="http://www.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://www.p2pfoundation.net</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank">https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a>� - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br>
<br>Connect: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.ning.com" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.ning.com</a>; Discuss:�<a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank">http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation</a><div>
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